Did you get any Steam prompts during the installation, though? Retail Steam titles will communicate with Steam regardless, so even though you install the game, you will have it tied to your account from that point forward.
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Dark Souls: Prepare to Die Edition |OT| Durante Does In 23 Minutes What From Can't
- Thread starter indigo-cyclops
- Start date
Did you get any Steam prompts during the installation, though? Retail Steam titles will communicate with Steam regardless, so even though you install the game, you will have it tied to your account from that point forward.
PairOfFilthySocks
Member
I know, but I got no prompts like that. Steam is installed on an external HDD, perhaps the install didn't see it?
The only thing I can think of right now is perhaps the retail copy isn't redeemable on Steam; if it was Steamworks, you'd have to install it through Steam.
PairOfFilthySocks
Member
Arrgh I just want to play the damn thing at the moment. You reckon GFWL will mess up my saves if I start playing now and then move them when/if I get it on Steam?
I wouldn't think so, since the only Steamworks application that the game has is being able to be registered on Steam, but I would still make use of Game Save Manager just to be on the safe side.
Thanks for the replies regarding Lautrec, guys. I also wonder who his two companions were when you invaded his world...anyone get a good look at the armour they were wearing, maybe?
Edit: Looks like the caster is wearing a Crimson (Sealer's) Robe, and the spearman has generic knight armour on with the Grass Crest Shield, neither of them with headgear: http://youtu.be/7QW2093uqEU?t=55s.
All in all as far as his intentions go, I guess we'll never know for certain but that just adds to the intrigue and mystery =)
Mechanically speaking, I also really like how the Ring of Favour and Protection is clearly an item that grants much benefit, but countered by the fact that it 'breaks' if taken off and needs to permanently take up a precious ring slot. For FROM to then weave a story regarding a possessive, "fateful" Goddess who effectively abandons you if you're no longer faithful to her, is brilliant.
Hell, maybe Lautrec was just driven mad by not being able to equip the Dark Wood Grain and Cloranthy Rings at the same time...it definitely gets to me, but taking Fina's ring off leads to instant regret when you see your stats drop noticeably - totally a love/hate relationship going on there.
Edit: Looks like the caster is wearing a Crimson (Sealer's) Robe, and the spearman has generic knight armour on with the Grass Crest Shield, neither of them with headgear: http://youtu.be/7QW2093uqEU?t=55s.
All in all as far as his intentions go, I guess we'll never know for certain but that just adds to the intrigue and mystery =)
Mechanically speaking, I also really like how the Ring of Favour and Protection is clearly an item that grants much benefit, but countered by the fact that it 'breaks' if taken off and needs to permanently take up a precious ring slot. For FROM to then weave a story regarding a possessive, "fateful" Goddess who effectively abandons you if you're no longer faithful to her, is brilliant.
Hell, maybe Lautrec was just driven mad by not being able to equip the Dark Wood Grain and Cloranthy Rings at the same time...it definitely gets to me, but taking Fina's ring off leads to instant regret when you see your stats drop noticeably - totally a love/hate relationship going on there.
I just picked up on that same thing. Very interesting that one of them has a Sealer's robe, since the idea is that there were three Sealers in New Londo and you find two of them in the game: Ingward and the corpse in Blighttown with the Remedy spell (not miracle, which is also interesting). So this is the third Sealer, then, or killed the Sealer and outfitted herself with it. I'm inclined to think it's actually one of the Sealers, since she's a spellcaster herself.
Man, the lore in this game is endless and never ceases to amaze me.
edit: the description says " two of the three forsook New Londo upon tiring of their duty", so Lautrec's Sealer could've went to the "dark side" for some reason, maybe as a consequence of the guilt of killing everyone in New Londo, specially with the Sealers being supposedly doctors or healers. They're white phantoms too, so I suppose they belong to the Way of the White covenant? I imagine that Princess Guard is unlikely since they're hunted by the Darkmoon covenant.
prodystopian
Member
I got the the DLC with a STR build in Ornstein's armor. I want to finish, but I went back to play NG+ with my dex character and had more fun getting back to the DLC.
Wow, the plot thickens! The Wiki says that the Sealers were originally healers, so I really am thinking of advancing that 'resurrecting Fina with the Firekeeper Soul' theory and say that the caster was there to...revitalise the health of a mortal manifestation of her (??).
And as far as I'm aware, the Grass Crest shield held by the knight is unique and found on the corpse in Darkroot Basin, near the shortcut lifts to Valley of Drakes and the gated entrance of New Londo Ruins...but not sure what the significance of that is.
Knowing FROM, though, every little detail is surely there for a reason.
Sir Ilpalazzo
Member
Never mind.
It's worth it to point out that the Knight Armor is found in the Basin by where you fight the Hydra. Two different corpses, sure, but possibly related all the same?
I really wish there was a better compendium of story and lore tidbits.
ENB's series on lore is the best I could find, and it's actually pretty good, but I want MOAR: http://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PL4825DBA198EBE9B9
ENB's series on lore is the best I could find, and it's actually pretty good, but I want MOAR: http://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PL4825DBA198EBE9B9
Why do you assume she's dead?
Ah indeed. Something else to think about.
Not so much that she's dead, but rather that she doesn't exist in physical form apart from the equipment she's given him. Lautrec seems like quite the outsider in Lordran - both in terms of his unique armour and the fact that Fina isn't related to Gwyn - who undertook an extended period of "solitude" for whatever reason, and the descriptions of his items coupled with his actions in the game hint (at least to me) towards a desire to reconnect or reunite with her somehow.
Travelling to Anor Londo, and particularly the Princess' Chamber despite his status of some kind of fugitive in these parts, just strike me as him wanting displace the giant, physical Gods in this land with that of his lover. It was all probably in vain, though, given that the entire place is essentially just a huge sham.
This is completely unrelated and a stretch, for sure, but the Talisman of Beasts in Demon's Souls came with the revelation that
"The symbol of God was nothing more than the Image of the Old One"
I can think of at least one humorous scenario that could explain that:
::knight fights the Hydra, gets stomped::
::adventurer comes by and notices corpse by lake and makes a break for it; only has enough time to grab the shield, which gives him the unexpected benefit of faster stamina recovery::
"I am invincible!" he proclaims, running past the Hydra's water projectiles and crystal golems, en route to safety
::forgets about the black knight, gets backed into the corner and has all sorts of horrible things happen to him before he dies::
I wish Lautrec's story was longer, we really don't get much to go on from the little we have.
I really can see him killing Firekeepers to restore his goddess to Anor Londo, but it feels like really thinly grounded. And maybe Fina's a Firekeeper herself and he's looking for whoever took her soul?
Nice one!
"With this stamina recovery shield, this black knight will be a piece of cake!"
Doesn't realise shield only has 95% physical resistance, halberd power strike breaks through guard, adventurer gets staggered, the end =p
I like that! And seeing how before you even get to Lautrec in the first place you need to take out the huge heavy knight guarding the firekeeper soul in Undead Parish, in front of a statue of a mystery woman no less, could that have been hers?
The Chosen Undead, foolishly wandering into the church and pretty much just causing havoc - releasing criminals and stealing people's souls - then takes it back to Anastacia, who Lautrec then pursues. Hmm...
Sure doesn't help though that Anastacia has next to no backstory and remains a complete mystery.
Yeah, though I expect Fina would be of Carim, so what is her body doing there? It seems like a weird place for her to be, too. I'd be more comfortable assuming Lautrec killed that Firekeeper but didn't manage to grab her soul before getting jailed, and the Berenike Knight and the Channeler are guarding it. I always thought the Channeler being there was pretty weird, as was the one in the Depths. Those guys work for Seath, what's their business with the Depths and the Undead Parish? Maybe Seath wants something with the Firekeepers and sends his Channelers to catch them? We know he caught one, since there's a Firekeeper's Soul in the cell with BHL, but I dunno.
Pulling stuff from out of my ass, but Dark Souls makes that so much fun to do...
Anastacia was presumably a maiden of the Way of White who became a Fire Keeper. The sulky dude at Firelink tells you that her tongue was cut out so that she couldn't profane the gods, and the description of the leg armor implies that she was maimed to prevent her escape. She seems to hate being a Fire Keeper and wants you to
succeed Gwyn to end the undead curse so that she can die as a human.
Bit of a Debbie Downer, that girl.
The Channelers roam Lordran collecting maidens for Seath's experiments. The presence of the one in the Parish makes a lot of sense since
if you let Rhea get taken to the Duke's Archive that's where she gets kidnapped from.
Thanks for that, I hadn't read up on the description for the skirt. Brutal. Any guesses as to who would've done that to her? Petrus? Gwyn himself? Bloody hell that Way of White covenant is filled with such muddy morality, all these firekeeper women are miserable.
And just with that description:
The localisation team have done such an outstanding job with the in-game text (link to a great EDGE interview if anyone missed it).
Was trying to remember how to get the Very Large Ember and looked up this video and it shows a crazy good shortcut to get to the 4 Kings. OMG I WISH I KNEW THIS BEFORE
On topic, seems like Anastasia had enough of Firekeeping and wanted out, so Gwyn and co. crushed her legs, cut off her tong and imprisoned her below the bonfire she had to keep?
On Lautrec, I've just talked to Patches and he says
On topic, seems like Anastasia had enough of Firekeeping and wanted out, so Gwyn and co. crushed her legs, cut off her tong and imprisoned her below the bonfire she had to keep?
On Lautrec, I've just talked to Patches and he says
" [Lautrec] wouldn't think twice about cutting somebody down. So watch out for him, especially if you've humanity to spare.". Sounds like he doesn't really target Firekeepers themselves, just humanity, and Firekeeper Souls are just a lot of humanity bundled together, so that's why he kills Anastacia.
Oh man I totally figured this one out on my own before! That feels awesome. Just gotta make sure you keep your eyes out for any extra ghosts you kited though.
I'm thankful they've decreased the agro radius of the enemies in New Londo by a lot since launch.You don't get anywhere near as much trouble after dropping down.
If Solaire really is Gwyn's firstborn, glad he turned out to be a likeable bloke. The rest of them seem like a bunch of ....
Re: Lautrec, cool, thanks for that. As to what he plans to do with all that humanity, I might try and come up with some more lore theories later on =)
On another note, came across this Forest Trolling video last night. I love that collection of pretty, sparkling prism stones to attract invaders to the edge of that cliff. Genius!
For some reason it makes me want to invade other players, kill them, and then drop a few Dung Pies as mementos for when they go back to collect their bloodstains...
Good day for me today. Apparently, the Undead Parish bonfire now decided to work, so that's pretty great, and I beat Nito and the Garden Guardian. Nito was ridiculously easy, and the Guardian took me a few tries, mostly because I was trying to cut off its tail.
So it's Seath, Bed of Chaos, DLC, and I'm through NG+. Still gotta do a couple more playthroughs if I want to get all the cheevos.
So it's Seath, Bed of Chaos, DLC, and I'm through NG+. Still gotta do a couple more playthroughs if I want to get all the cheevos.
Thanks for the read, that was pretty good. I love how humble Miyazaki is, you wouldn't tell he butchers his players' self-respect from his answers in the interview.
Oh my god, another Japanese dev that seeks to improve localizations for Western audiences, rather than forcing the Japanese-ness to make shit painful for everyone. That makes him, like, the fourth one.
Well ofcourse a translation has to take up on the intention and the meaning, rather than a literal translation, though if the adaptation takes place to "adapt" elements of the characters or the story to another culture, then i'm not really ok with it.
For example if elements such as sexism (or whatever, really) are present in the original script because of the different culture, i don't want them changed just to appease to mine, i like to experience foreign stuff as unfiltered as i can.
Again, if those liberties are to better channel the original vision in a new language, then by all means do it, though.
For example if elements such as sexism (or whatever, really) are present in the original script because of the different culture, i don't want them changed just to appease to mine, i like to experience foreign stuff as unfiltered as i can.
Again, if those liberties are to better channel the original vision in a new language, then by all means do it, though.
Blacksmith Andre
I always use that one now. What shortcut were you using?
There's a cool one where you ride the lift down from dark root basin, run through the drakes in valley of the drakes, make a hard jump over this mound of bodies in new Londo, and then run through to 4 kings.
I used to use this one. The problem is if you miss the jump over the mound of bodies, you have drakes and a dark wraith chasing you and have to deal with them.
I figure its probably faster to go the other way from firelink. If you miss that first jump, than its going to he slower.
Busta SMurk
Member
I'd like to see that shortcut! I usually come from Valley of the Drakes myself, but that was before I realized you can drop off a ledge by the 'ghost house' that Ingward stands on, and enter the fog gate there. I came from Firelink this time.
Always remembering to send the lift back up, is a nice time saver too.
That's a big reason why Nier had such a great localization; the guys over at Cavia gave 8-4 free reign on changing stuff around, and it was all the better for it. Suda 51 has also practiced this policy for a long time now, as well.
Continuing to experiment with Dark Souls image quality, I decided to render some shots at 3240p (9x as many pixels as 1080p).
Album:http://minus.com/mOjmcxDmeqA9A
Here's an example shot.
And just as an interesting note, I rendered the image at both console resolution, and 3240p to compare the details lost when rendering at the default resolution.
I recommend you open them both in different tabs, zoom in, and switch tabs to look at the differences.
1024x720: http://i.minus.com/iba5FZ29ZqDRdz.png
5760x3240: http://i.minus.com/iDTrnY5MXY4tt.png
At default res, you can't notice the etching in the chest plate at all, and the skirt at the bottom looks like it's cloth while at high res you can see that it's actually chain mail. There's a ton of detail in the sword as well that's completely hidden. This game can really look quite stunning.
Album:http://minus.com/mOjmcxDmeqA9A
Here's an example shot.
And just as an interesting note, I rendered the image at both console resolution, and 3240p to compare the details lost when rendering at the default resolution.
I recommend you open them both in different tabs, zoom in, and switch tabs to look at the differences.
1024x720: http://i.minus.com/iba5FZ29ZqDRdz.png
5760x3240: http://i.minus.com/iDTrnY5MXY4tt.png
At default res, you can't notice the etching in the chest plate at all, and the skirt at the bottom looks like it's cloth while at high res you can see that it's actually chain mail. There's a ton of detail in the sword as well that's completely hidden. This game can really look quite stunning.
rogerroger22
Member
I remember someone posting in a thread about the DSFix "really, I see no need to use this - the game looks fine as is".
*boggle*
*boggle*
I just ran there from Firelink Shrine taking the elevator in New Londo and killing three or four darkwraiths in the way. This would save me two darkwraiths and a ghost, plus a lot of walking/waiting for the elevator.
Hmm, bound to change but: My Fair Lady > Solaire > Ziggy > Gwynevere > Andre > The Anor Londo Firekeeper > Lautrec > Patches > Oswald.
The smartest and rightest man in the world.
No boss fight prior or after comes near the genius and beauty of this fight. Everything you've learned in this game in regards to combat techniques, culminates here. And hell if it isn't taking place against the most epic nerdgasm enducing theme this generation.
Maaaybe Gwyn comes close as far as needing to be on your weapon mastery A game.
Red Liquorice
Member
Don't really use pyro much so I don't know, but do the bellowing ring and dusk crown etc boost pyro as well as sorcery?
Recently started using power within to rip through bosses like hot butter and realised I can probably boost it even more.
Recently started using power within to rip through bosses like hot butter and realised I can probably boost it even more.
HungOverOnATues
Member
Yes to both of those.
Gwyn is cool in that you can either use a similar strategy than with four kings, or you can go with the parry route.
I am not that good with the parries. so I generally Iron Flesh him.
Red Liquorice
Member
Awesome. Been playing so long and never used Power Within. So many tools at your disposal.
YianGaruga
Banned
Just beat Manus with the help of Sif on my first ever try. Took 13 charges of Estus, but it wasn't really hard since he telegraphs his attacks a lot. Actually had way more trouble with the Artorias battle, which took me at least 5 tries.
Only Gwyn left now.
Only Gwyn left now.
Didn't know this, but it tells. Nier is fantastic.
Anyways, made more progress today, got Artorias and Seath down. Artorias wasn't too hard, took me only two tries but it was pretty great anyways. I also killed
his girlfriend :3
lol
jim-jam bongs
Member
god the name MAN-CLAMS makes me lol
anyway, I finally was happy enough with my build post O&S that I stuck with it instead of rerolling! downed the four kings for the first time last night, next up is demon ruins and lost izalith. honestly it was tfk which frustrated me enough to reroll, I never seemed to have enough dps to get them down before the fight became unmanageable. this time I made sure I got the crystal versions of logan's spells and they were cake.
according to steam I've played for 240 hours already...
anyway, I finally was happy enough with my build post O&S that I stuck with it instead of rerolling! downed the four kings for the first time last night, next up is demon ruins and lost izalith. honestly it was tfk which frustrated me enough to reroll, I never seemed to have enough dps to get them down before the fight became unmanageable. this time I made sure I got the crystal versions of logan's spells and they were cake.
according to steam I've played for 240 hours already...
jim-jam bongs
Member
first time you fight him there's no fog door, so if you run past them they'll come inside with you =D
240, wow. I'm at 140 right now, not even close to New Vegas, but just passed Mount & Blade and it sits at the number four spot, almost about to beat Rusty Hearts (lol).
What jim-jam said. It got pretty hectic for a second, so if anyone wants some extra challenge, clams it is
Seath is still really easy, since he almost always allows you to heal and his moveset isn't too hard to dodge.
----
I just realized the image quality on that pic is terrible. I shouldn't play in windowed mode, but by now I'm not as "immersed" as I was on the first playthrough (by the way, Nier's soundtrack makes a great companion for Dark Souls NG+).
Yeah but just dance around with Seath and they generally die from the breath anyway.
jim-jam bongs
Member
last time I looked I was at 350 hours in New Vegas so there's a way to go yet before dark souls knocks it off the top spot.
poor man clams
they just wanna party too
Yeah but just dance around with Seath and they generally die from the breath anyway.
poor man clams
they just wanna party too